Dr. María del Carmen is a pediatrician and public health specialist, a graduate of Cayetano Heredia University in Peru, with a master’s degree in Government and Health Management and a doctorate in Public Health. She specializes in Comprehensive Adolescent Health and Development, Global Health, and Health Diplomacy. She has completed postgraduate studies at Harvard, Fiocruz, Korea, PUC Chile, CAEN, and UPCH, among others.

She has extensive experience in Public Health and Adolescent Health at the national, regional, and international levels. At the Ministry of Health (MINSA), she served as National Coordinator of Comprehensive Care Programs for Adolescents and Youth, Coordinator of the School Health Program, Advisor to the General Directorate of Health Promotion, Director General of the General Directorate of Strategic Interventions (2016-2017), and Vice Minister of Public Health (2018). At the national level, she has been Peru’s Representative to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, Switzerland (2006), and Advisor to the Presidential Office in the areas of Health and Nutrition. Internationally, she has served as Regional Advisor for Adolescent Health at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Washington, D.C. (2015) and Executive Secretary of the Andean Health Organization – Hipólito Unanue Agreement )2020-2025). She has led the Peruvian Society for Adolescence and Youth (SPAJ), the Ibero-American and Caribbean Confederation of Adolescence and Youth (CODAJIC), and served as Vice President for Latin America of the International Association for Adolescent Health (IAAH). She is a member of the Standing Committee of the International Pediatric Association (IPA) and the Peruvian Society of Pediatrics. She was a pediatrician at the Javier Prado Clinic (1985–2020).

Currently, she is the President of the IAAH for the 2025–2028 term and Coordinator of the IPA’s areas of Non-Communicable Diseases, Adolescence, Mental Health, Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, and Newborn Screening (2025–2027).

She is a Global Advisor to the Rotary Foundation and Coordinator of the Adolescent Chapter of the Peruvian Society of Pediatrics (SPP).

Advisor to CODAJIC and ALAPE. Member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Working Group on Adolescence. Author of several publications, the most recent being “An Integrative Etiopathogenic Model of the Impact of Social Networks on Adolescent Health,” co-authored with Yadira Salas, M.Sc. National and international speaker. University professor.

She has received numerous national (CMP, MINSA, MIMP) and international (PAHO, UNICEF, SAHM) awards, including the Order of Hipólito Unanue, Grand Cross.